Air Force leader with Milwaukee roots retiring

More than 37 years of service in the U.S. Air Force with assignments all over the world, and Gen. Frank Gorenc still has a love for cheese curds, and a set of foam Packers merchandise.

Gorenc, a four-star general, will be celebrating his retirement from the Air Force with a ceremony Friday at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.

As commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the last three years, Gorenc oversaw 35,000 Air Force personnel in Europe and Africa, as well as commanding NATO air forces.

He has been responsible for Air Force operations covering more than 19 million square miles — an area that includes 104 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and the Arctic, Atlantic and Indian oceans. He is also a command pilot, with more than 4,500 flight hours.

“One of the greatest things about being a commander at a major command level is it's really satisfying to be able to use all the things you learned in your career and bring it together at the strategic level in the Air Force so we can better train and equip the force,” he said in a telephone interview Monday.

Gorenc was 4 years old when his parents moved their family to Milwaukee from the town of Ljubljana in Slovenia, then a part of Yugoslavia. He grew up on the south side of Milwaukee near S. 9th and W. Mineral streets.

“Coming from a lower, middle-class primarily immigrant neighborhood, there was no shortage of work ethic,” Gorenc said. “I was constantly surrounded by people who came to America for opportunities, and when the opportunity came they took absolutely everything that was available, and that’s kind of the way I grew up.”

At Milwaukee Tech High School, Gorenc participated in the school band, played football and took summer school classes.

“If you ever met Frank, you just knew he was going places,” said Jerry Stanaszak, a high school friend of Gorenc. “You just didn’t know how high.”

Gorenc’s brother Stan was the first to decide to go into the Air Force Academy in Colorado after high school. Looking for a way to go to college without costing a great deal of money, Stan's high school counselor suggested that he go to a service academy.

“The light kind of came on for me,” Gorenc said about visiting his brother for the first time at the Air Force Academy. “I was 13 years old and remember it like it was yesterday. I saw that opportunity and what really motivated me was I could go to college and not be a burden on my parents to pay for it.”

He graduated from the Academy with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1979.

Since then, he has worked his way up the ranks, serving as a commander nine times. For Gorenc, becoming a four-star general was an “unreal moment."

“For an immigrant son to go and join the Air Force and go through all the ranks to four-star, it was an amazing acknowledgment of what is possible in America if you take the opportunities that are presented to you,” Gorenc said. His biggest challenge: Managing a shrinking American military when the countries under his purview were rife with turmoil.

Family and friends from Milwaukee are driving to Virginia to attend his retirement ceremony on Friday.

“He was never the guy to take shortcuts,” said Tony Buszka, a childhood friend who will be on hand. “He scared the heck out of us with his stories from the Air Force Academy when we came home for breaks. They worked him to death, but he loved it, he loved the challenge.”

As for his post-retirement plans, he and his wife, Sharon, plan to live in their home outside Williamsburg, Va. He plans to keep working in some capacity.

His brother Stan owns a lake house near Minocqua, and starting in September the new retiree and his wife will be spending some time there. He also plans to visit his kids in Utah and Virginia.

"One of the things that's really satisfying for a military person is to feel the tremendous support from the American people with respect to the mission we do," Gorenc said. "And I've felt that support my entire career.

"My mom gave me advice early on, that if you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life," he said. "I haven't worked a day after the age of 17, I've loved it that much."